In 1993 a study of deaf-blind children in interaction with their caregivers
was started. The objective of the study is to describe early patterns of
interaction between the deaf-blind children and their parents both with
respect to content of the interaction and means of communciation.Five children
participate in the study, three boys and two girls. The youngest child
was 13 months when first visited, the oldest 3:9 years. The children are
those children diagnosed as severely visually and hearing impaired in Sweden
at the present time. Four of the children have additional functional disabilies
than the visual and hearing impairments. The families have been visited
every third/fourth month and the parent-child interaction has been videorecorded.
Direct observations of interaction as well as interviews with the parents
are also made. The videorecordings are then transcribed and parts of the
material micro-analysed in order to systematically transscribe patterns
of interaction between parent and child. The first results show that the
five children in the study elicit contact initiatives from their parents
primarily by means of body movements, facial expressions and vocalizations.
They can all take part in joyful interaction, best represented in body-plays.
All of the children, even the youngest of 13 months, show different reactions
towards important persons like mother, father, sibling or physiotherapist.
All of the children, despite very different prerequisites, are attentive
to the surrounding world. Play seems to be important fo these children,
both exploration of toys or objects and body plays with the caregiver.
The parents of four of the children use signs in their interaction with
their child. The signs are simple signs placed on their child´s bodies
like DRINK, COME, MUMMY, DADDY and CLEVER. Two of the oldest children have
started to use some single signs.

Communication between the blind, the deaf, the severely visually impaired
multiply handicapped and now the deaf blind children and their parents
show a similar pattern of early interaction as that of normal children.
Even if development proceeds very slowly for the children with the severe
and multiply functional disabilities, it follows the same footsteps as
those for the normal child.The results of the detailed analyses further
show that the possibilities for a child with functional disabilities to
engage in meaningful interaction to a great extent are dependent on the
ability of the caregiver to adapt to the infant´s possibilities and
to give space for the child to take an active part in the interaction -
to follow rather than direct the child. Joyful interaction seems to be
of special importance in the child´s general development and psychological
well-being.

Reference:
Preisler, G. The development of deaf-blind children. (1996). In Theodor
Enerstvedt och Anne V. Nafstad (Eds.). Bilingualism and literacy concerning
deafness and deafblindness. Proceedings of the International Workshop,
November 10-13, 1994. Oslo: Research Unit, Skadalen Resource Centre for
Special Education of the Hearing Impaired and the Deaf-blind.